Sympathy For My Demons
by Werewolf Nighteyes
Summary: Keith Rainell hasn't returned to Silent Hill since his mother's death. Five years later he stops there with his friends while on a road trip. There his memories lead him into a trap where he must confront his demons, or be lost forever.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

'_And as the guilty burn, they call out for their kindred, dragging them into the abyss.'_

_The Crimson Tome_

The public toilet was in such a dilapidated state that Keith doubted the water running from the tap itself could possibly be clean. Yet he washed his face with it anyway, not wanting his fatigue to get the better of him. He peered into the cracked mirror and saw himself, as he hadn't seen himself for a long time. The dark circles under his eyes were testament to how many sleepless nights he had had ever since they had gotten on the road. Claire had offered him sleeping pills which he had politely declined- deciding that the less sleep he got the better. His short dark brown hair was ruffled and unkempt, though he decided not to do anything about it yet. Not until they would get to the hotel and get cleaned up properly with, hopefully, proper food for once. He wasn't really the kind who was picky when it came to food, but after three days straight on the road with nothing but diner food and bad coffee, he felt as if he could kill for a decent meal.

Either way, he had something else that he needed to do first. Taking a deep breath as though bracing himself, he stepped outside into the parking lot, where the lone black car waited for him with the engine still running. He walked up to the front passenger's window and tapped it softly, just loud enough for Claire to hear him. Upon noticing him, she opened the windows and turned down the volume on the radio before looking up at him questioningly.

"Where's Leo?" she asked impatiently. "The sooner we get into town the better. I'm dying for a hot bath."

Keith shrugged. "He's still in there."

And just as he uttered those words, a young man with long dirty blonde hair in a black leather jacket came out of the toilet with a look of severe frustration on his face. He walked up to the car and immediately went up towards the driver's side, opening the door before turning to look at Keith with an impatient look on his face.

"No fucking toilet paper," he said simply. "Hurry up and get in the car, man. The town's just across the bridge. We'll drop our stuff in a room and we'll settle your stuff after we've gotten food and a shower, okay?"

Keith shook his head in response. He glanced over his shoulder to look at the stairs from the parking lot leading down towards a fog-covered forest. Beside the stairs was a signboard which was too faded to read, but Keith remembered it all the same. "The cemetery isn't too far off from here. And from there I can just walk up to town. I'll meet you guys there later, okay?"

Leo looked at Keith curiously, his eyes narrowing. "Are you sure?" he asked.

Keith nodded simply, "Yeah. Keep your cell phone on so I can call you when I get to town. Don't wait up for me if I run late."

From inside the car, Claire leaned out slightly before she looked up at Keith and said, "Don't come in too late, okay? You want me to come with you? Leo and Sean can find their way around town easy enough with the map."

To this, Keith just shook his head. As much as the thought of the chance of being alone with her excited him, Keith had decided before they had left home, that this was something he needed to do alone. Although the idea of stopping in Silent Hill just so he could visit his mother's grave wasn't what the gang immediately had in mind when the road trip was planned two months before graduation, they had decided that sparing a day or two couldn't possibly hurt all that much.

Claire gave him that look that she always gave him during moments like these, moments when he wanted to be alone. There was that encouraging smile, and the way her eyes looked directly into his never failed to make him smile back. Then she leaned back into the car as Leo set himself into the driver's seat, Sean still snoring like a baby in the back.

"See you later," Leo said to him before the car drove off. Keith watched on for a while, and then turned away when it disappeared like a ghost into the fog.

Alone now.

As much as he preferred being alone most of the time back at school, suddenly he felt like it wasn't such a good idea after all. He couldn't exactly figure out why, but as he descended the stairs to the dirt path that led through the forest below, he couldn't help but feel like he was being watched. Of course, it was just his imagination. With the fog growing thicker and thicker, it was hard not to imagine hundreds upon hundreds of hungry eyes watching, waiting hungrily.

Nothing there. There was nothing there.

The whispers he heard were at the back of his mind. The sounds of footsteps trailing behind him were his own. The chill he felt running through his entire body was just the cold air. The sense of nausea was leftover from his motion sickness back while inside the car.

Nothing was wrong.

Most importantly, he wasn't lost. Five years hadn't left that big a scar on his memories, and he could remember the way well enough. The dirt path led in only one direction anyway- it was impossible to get lost, even with all the fog. All he had to do was keep his eyes on the path as he walked.

'_Lost._'

He began humming a tune under his breath. He didn't exactly remember what song it was, it was just something he had picked up from one of those CDs Leo had been playing in the car. Some British band which he'd never paid attention to. Keith wasn't much of a music enthusiast to begin with, and truth be told he never got along that well when it came to-

'_Lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost!_'

He hummed loudly, his steps growing steadily faster. As he walked his kept both hands in his pockets, his left hand gripping _it_ tightly, like he always did whenever he got nervous.

'_Hide and seek?_'

And he stopped. Straight ahead was the iron gate leading into the cemetery, just by the well. It was covered with ivy now, like no one had opened it for years. It wouldn't have surprised him if it was the truth, though. He hardly saw the practicality of a road from the parking lot outside town leading towards a cemetery which further onwards led to the town itself.

Stepping into the cemetery felt strangely like coming home more than he would have liked to admit. The tombstones that greeted him as he closed the gate behind him weren't ones that he would know by heart, really. He had only been here just once, and he hadn't had the chance to come here again since then. His uncle would always find some excuse to tell him that going to Silent Hill was a waste of time. Keith didn't blame him, though. As heavenly as Silent Hill was to the naked eye, it had its share of unsettling stories as well. Not that everyone listened to them. There were those who loved it enough to call it 'heaven', just as much as there were those who left Silent Hill never to come back.

And of course, there were those who came to Silent Hill and disappeared altogether.

'_Hide and seek! Hide and seek!_'

Keith felt the hair at the back of his neck stand on end. It was when he saw his mother's tombstone that he saw, finally, where the voice was coming from.

He would have dismissed it as another figment of his imagination if it hadn't looked so _real_. From the green t-shirt down to the blue jeans that the speaker war, right up to the short brown hair that was combed neatly to the back of his head, their eyes met, and Keith realized that he was looking at someone he knew all too well.

The speaker had his voice, his clothes, his eyes, everything to the last detail except that his hair wasn't tousled and he was smiling, the kind of smile that Keith could never pull. The kind which a spider would give to a fly caught in its web- the insane smile of a predator.

'_My turn to hide, brother_,'

And then he started laughing.

As he laughed, he turned around and ran, disappearing into the fog with his laughter echoing behind him.

"Kyle," Keith murmured under his breath. His eyes fell upon his mother's tombstone for a while, then, he looked up and started running, following the sound of laughter wherever it would lead him.


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One**

The room wasn't such a bad place. Well, at least Leo remembered seeing worse places. With Claire still in the toilet, enjoying her hot warm bath and Sean outside grabbing food from the local diner, Leo turned towards old sofa in front of the TV before settling down, his eyes on the television's blank screen. The distant sound of the cars outside, accompanied by the sound of rain falling on the roof could be heard, beating back the otherwise awkward silence of the room. He looked up at the clock set up above the TV, then at his wrist watch for conformation.

It was getting late, and there still wasn't any sign of Keith. He and Claire had sent a couple of messages to his phone over the past few hours, and still he had yet to reply. When Leo had voiced his concerns, Sean had simply replied, '_He's a big boy. He can take care of himself. What are you so worried about?_'

Leo yawned. He put his feet up on the sofa before stretching lazily, prepared to lay back down and catch some much-needed 'z's which he had lost on the highway. He didn't care what Sean wanted to say tomorrow- it would be _his_ turn to drive, and Leo's turn to laze out in the backseat.

'_I need to go to Silent Hill. Do you think we could stop there?_'

He remembered Keith's intense brown eyes staring into his with a sort of pleading expression. He had looked so tired then, like he would collapse at any given moment. That was what had worried him, that he couldn't _ever_ remember Keith looking so worn out before. It looked as though he had been losing sleep. No, more than that. It looked as though he was sick, and needed help desperately.

'_I'm fine, Leo. I just need to see my mother. It'll only be one day, I promise._'

Leo could feel his eyelids drooping. Realizing this, he forced himself upright again, and back onto his feet. Shaking his head slowly, he walked up towards the window and drew back the faded yellow curtains and looked out onto the street to see Sean coming out of the diner with a brown paper bag in his hands. The blue Hawaiian shirt he wore almost made him shine in the darkness outside, reflecting the lights from the shop house windows and the cars passing by.

Still there was no sign of Keith. Grabbing his cellphone from a nearby wooden table where the rest of the gang had left their luggage, he dialed Keith's number for the third time tonight.

-

'_I won't tell_.'

_He looked at his brother's blood-smeared face, and his lips broke into a smile. He touched Kyle's face, and looked at his fingers to see if the blood was real. It was real enough. Real. Real. _

_His smile turned into a grin._

_'Keep it a secret?_'

_Kyle put his left index finger to his lips. _

_'Shhh…_'

-

'_Shhh…_'

It was dark. The fog had given way to total, absolute darkness. There was no moon above, no stars, nothing. But he was in town. Of that much, he was certain. He remembered the mart near the town exit- his mother used to take him and Kyle there as children. It was still there now. As he stood on its doorstep, he touched the painted blue walls of the shophouse as though to check if it was real.

It was real enough. But it was dark. Silent, like the rest of the town. The windows were all boarded up, and there weren't any lights turned on anywhere he could see.

He knocked on the front door.

"Hello?" he called out. "Is there anyone there?"

No answer.

He backed away, and tried the door next to the one he was at. He knocked at it harder, calling out louder. Still no answer came. His heart suddenly beating faster, he tried one door after another, convinced, somehow, that at least _one_ of them would have someone inside.

Realizing, eventually, that his attempts were getting him nowhere, he fumbled for the cellphone in his pocket.

He dialed Claire's number. If the town was abandoned, they would probably be looking for him right now. They wouldn't turn around and just leave, would they? No, no it wasn't possible. They were his friends. Claire would have stopped them. Yes, yes, yes. She would have. Yes. Yes.

"Come on, come on, pick up," Keith murmured, pacing back and forth in front of a nearby gas station.

When he reached her answering machine, he swore and immediately started to dial Sean's number- but just as he was about to hit the 'call' button, his cellphone started to ring.

It was Leo.

Sighing with relief, Keith pressed the 'accept' button before raising the phone to his ears, expecting to hear a very angry Leo demanding to know where he was.

All he heard was a loud buzzing. Like static from a badly tuned radio. His eyes widening with surprise, he looked at his phone again, and saw that the call was still indeed made by Leo. He put the phone back to his ears and called out, "Leo? Hello? Leo, are you there?"

Still all he could hear was the buzzing.

'_What the fuck is going on?_'

He turned off his phone and shoved it back into his pocket, unaware of the dragging sound coming up behind him….

-

'_It's only for a day, guys. What harm could it possibly do?_'

Claire emerged from the water, catching her breath before lying back, humming a slow tune. She hoped that Leo and Sean weren't in a hurry to use the toilet, because right now she only felt like spending as much time in here as humanly possible.

The toilet wasn't all that fancy, like the rest of the room. The mirror was cracked, possibly by the previous guest and the motel owner hadn't had a chance to do anything about it yet. Some of the black and white tiles were cracked at the edge of the toilet, and water was dripping from the tap at the sink. Definitely not five-star service, but it was enough, considering they didn't have that much money to spend anyway. She'd heard that there was a larger, fancier hotel in the middle of the lake, but then she doubted that they'd be able to afford it. Unless Sean got in another one of his 'generous moods'. Regardless of being the 'rich kid', Sean had insisted on the journey being spent in the most normal way possible.

She respected him for that, somewhat.

'_Thanks, Claire._'

Her mind drifted to Keith, and she wondered if he'd found his way to the motel yet, or if he'd at least responded to the messages she and Leo had sent. '_What could possibly be keeping him?_' she wondered.

'_Maybe he just has a lot to say to his mother. Probably has it all planned out on paper_,' she mused.

She couldn't help but worry, though. Something just didn't feel right.

'_I'm here for you, you understand? Don't you ever fucking try this again!_'

The memory brought back a frown to her face. She couldn't remember being so scared in her entire life. Well, he had been normal enough for the past year or so, so she doubted…

'_Thanks, Claire_.'

And that was when she was forced underwater.

It happened so suddenly that at first, she didn't know how to react. Then panic kicked in and all she could do was struggle, push back against the hands holding her inside the tub. Breathe. All she needed to do was breathe. Breathe.

_Goddamnit what the fuck is going on? No, no, no, no, no! Shit! NOT LIKE THIS! NOT LIKE THIS! FUCK! _

Before she felt the hands withdraw, she thought she saw, as she rose from the water, Keith's face, smiling at her.


	3. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

"Claire!"

As the door burst open, in rushed Leo and Sean, both with worried looks on their faces. They found her huddled in a corner, dressed only in her towel, her hair still soaking wet. The horrified expression was still in her eyes, as she stared at the bathtub, unmoving. It was as though she didn't even see Leo and Sean come in. She just stared.

As Leo helped her up, that was when she found her voice again. "Keith," she said. "Where's Keith?"

Leo shook his head. "I tried calling his cell again but he didn't pick up," he replied. "He hasn't come back yet, or tried to contact us. Claire, what happened in here? We heard screaming."

Claire's eyes lost focus again, and she seemed to take time to think of what to say. Finally, she shrugged and said, "Nothing. I just fell asleep in the tub and had a nightmare, that's all."

Leo put on a look of disbelief. In response, Sean sighed and shrugged. "Well, it happens," he said. "Important thing is she's okay."

As Claire made her way past the men out of the bathroom, she said in a firmer voice, "We need to look for Keith." And at that, she put on a bathrobe and walked out. Before Leo and Sean could ask 'why', she had answered that question as she started dressing hurriedly.

"He's in trouble."

Now it was Sean's turn to put on a look of disbelief. Leo kept his where it was as they both stared at her.

"How…how do you know?" Sean asked.

Claire shook her head and just walked for the door, grabbing her wallet, phone and denim jacket as she passed the dinner table. "I just do," she just said simply. "God damn it, we should never have left him alone, that _idiot!_" As she opened the front door, she stopped, whipped around and gave the two men a look of annoyance.

"_Hurry up!_" she urged.

"But where are we going?" Sean asked. Leo was already grabbing his jacket and his car keys.

Claire shrugged. "Where we left him is as good as any place to start."

As she led them down the stairs, the door to room 302 closing behind them, she could almost hear Keith's voice in her ears.

'_Am I thing worth saving?_'

-

Ignoring the pain in his left shoulder, Keith kept on running. Direction didn't matter anymore as a mindless sort of panic seized him. He couldn't fucking see clearly _what_ it was, but from what he could tell, _it_ wasn't human. Its shape was humanoid, it walked on two feet and had two hands but _it_ wasn't human. He hadn't seen its face- hadn't bothered to. Did it _have_ a face?

'_Can'tberealnononofuckbleedingrunmustbreathewheremustrunWHEREhelpwhereWHEREWHEREWHERE!'_

Running didn't feel like it was making a difference. It like he was trying to run away from his shadow- like the thing was _attached_ to him in a grotesque sort of way. The scent of it, its putrid stench only seemed to wrap tighter around him the further he ran.

And all the time he ran, the only sound he could hear was the laughter of child. It was a laughter he recognized well- and it only made him run faster.

And then-

The next thing he knew, he was lying on his chest in the middle of the road. He had tripped- and now it was over.

'_KylekylekyleisthatyouleavemealonedidntmeanitpleasepleaseNO!_'

And just as he had felt _it_ stand over him, ready to finish him off, the feeling disappeared- just as suddenly as the thing had announced its presence earlier by driving something sharp into Keith's shoulder. The sound of laughter stopped, and Keith realized that he was alone again.

Then he heard the sound of his _own_ laughter.

'_You're so silly. You always were the slow one, Keith. That thing you were running from sure as hell wasn't me, and the funnier thing is that it wasn't going to **kill** you. Heck, you're not even bleeding!_'

Keith sat up, immediately looking towards the place where he had been wounded. True enough, there was nothing there. His clothes were still intact, and the pain was gone. Nothing had happened.

"I'm going crazy," he murmured, his eyes suddenly looking lost.

And he heard his own voice laughing louder. Except he knew now that it belonged to Kyle, his brother.

'_You're not, you idiot. It's all a game, don't you see? Like the ones we had when we were children, remember? Your friends are playing too this time. We're going to have such fun…'_

"What are you talking about?" Keith shouted at the darkness, his voice faltering as he shivered in the cold that embraced him.

Then he felt someone breathing up his ear, someone he couldn't see. The air seemed to grow ice cold as he heard Kyle's voice whispering directly in his ear this time:

'_They're waiting for you. It's your party, Keith. It's not polite to keep the guests waiting_.'

Keith stood up weakly, clenching his fists. "Wasn't once enough, Keith? Why me? I never did anything to you and you know that. And my friends haven't done anything to you either-

'_No Keith_,' Kyle interrupted. '_Once isn't nearly enough._'

And Kyle's laughter seemed to fade into the darkness. Finally alone, Keith sank back onto his knees. And that was when he saw the thing that had made him trip.

It was a severed human leg. At first he'd hoped for it to be the piece of a store mannequin- but then some people could only be so lucky. The bloodstains and the stench of rotting meat were enough to tell him that it was real. He touched it, _felt it_. Then, looking all the more lost, he touched his face, as though trying to make sure he wasn't dreaming, and if he was, he wanted to fucking wake up now.

Then he noticed that there was something else beside the severed leg. It was a cylindrical object, glinting slightly in the dark at one end. Picking it up, he found that it was a flashlight.

Not questioning where it had come from, he tested it and found that it still worked- a steady beam of light shone out in front of him onto the pavement in front of him. It wasn't really much, but it was better than nothing.

Then he noticed something else.

There was a trail of blood leading from where the severed leg lay on the road. It led all the way up the street before it turned at the first and closest junction Keith could see. Written in blood on the ground, right beside the leg were the words:

'_Yellow brick road_._'_

The more he thought about it the more he felt convinced that he was insane, that none of this was real. It wasn't impossible- everyone in school had thought him insane during the one or two incidents he'd had.

Or maybe the town really was fucked. And it was trying to screw with him. If so, then maybe all he needed to do was retrace his steps, through the cemetery then out of town- and it would end. From there-

'_Claire_.'

'_Fuck_.'

Claire, Leo and Sean were still in town, or at least, Kyle had implied that. What if they were? How could he just turn around and leave when-

'_Listen, Keith_,' he heard Leo's voice- and echo from a year ago, or was it two? He was it two? He couldn't remember anymore. '_Shit happens but this is **not** how you deal with it, okay? We're here for you. All the way._'

There were tears running down his face as he followed after the trail, staggering slightly.


	4. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three**

"Sean, don't be a chicken," Leo sighed impatiently. He pointed the flashlight he'd withdrawn from the glove box straight at Sean's face and opened the car door. Behind him, Claire rolled her eyes, her arms folded in front of her chest. Their car was now parked outside the public washroom where they had left Keith earlier. The fog was almost gone now, only to be replaced by the darkness of the night. The forest path they had seen Keith disappear into didn't appear to have any lights, so they would have to rely on the single flashlight that they had. Of course, the slight problem now was Sean's fear of the dark. Even in the car, he had the lights turned on and the radio turned up to full blast.

"Get out of the car," Leo repeated, leaning inside the car to talk to Sean.

Shaking his head, Sean lowered the radio volume to talk to Leo. "I'm achluophobic, remember? Now you two run along, and I'll wait here in the car, in case he sees it and comes here."

Seeing the irritated look on Leo's face, Sean quickly added, "I'm the smart one, not the brave one. Now run along."

Rolling his eyes, Leo got out of the car before slamming the door shut. He turned around to face Claire, his annoyed look mirrored in hers. Shrugging, he walked ahead, saying, "Come on, let's get this over with quickly."

She walked by his side, sticking close. Regardless of not being as afraid of the dark as Sean possibly was, the darkness still unnerved her somewhat. Coupled with the fact that the incident in the bathroom was still fresh in her mind, she was suddenly wondering if coming out here in the middle of the night was such a good idea after all.

'_Keith needs me_,' she told herself. And she steeled herself to face whatever it would take to find him.

"Sure is cold out here," she murmured.

Beside her, Keith nodded in reply. "Ice cold," he agreed. "It's almost…unnatural." He was going to add that something didn't feel right about this town, but then he decided that it would make him sound paranoid. As they reached the bottom of the stairs, Leo shone the flashlight ahead onto the dirt path.

"Footprints," Claire said. "I don't think he could have gotten lost out here. The path only leads one way."

"If these are his prints to begin with," Leo pointed out. "But I don't really think that there could be anyone else out here."

They didn't notice, however, as they walked ahead, that in the darkness behind them, someone was walking up the stairs towards the car park from which they had come from.

-

Meanwhile, in the car, Sean wasn't having much of a good time to begin with. As much as he hated being out there in the dark, he hated being alone. But with the loud music on to distract him, he decided that it beat being outside. Humming along to the heavy metal music, he grabbed a doughnut from the box he had left on the driver's seat and took one big bite, leaving a trace of strawberry jam trickling down his chin.

He peered over at the local newspaper lying in the seat beside him. Finishing off the doughnut and wiping his chin, he picked it up and started reading.

The front page article was about a series of murders from the neighboring city, South Ashfield. A woman had been found murdered in the subway, with the numbers _16121_ carved into her corpse. Remembering the Walter Sullivan case from a year or so before sent a chill up his spine, and he set the article aside.

And that was when the car radio started causing problems.

It turned off on its own.

"What the…" Sean murmured, looking over at the radio. Nothing appeared to be wrong with it. Narrowing his eyes with confusion, he turned to radio on again. The music continued to play for a few seconds…

Before the radio turned off again.

Looking severely annoyed, Sean turned it on again. "Bloody hell," he whispered. "Not now."

When he turned it on again, however, it wasn't playing the cassette he had put inside it.

It wasn't even music. It sounded like a mass of people chanting something in some foreign tongue, with voices that sounded far from human. His eyes widening with fright, he tried switching the stations, to no avail. The chanting remained, steadily growing in volume until Sean couldn't hear his own voice as he shouted, "_Fuck!_" He tried turning it off, but it seemed that the thing had a life of its own now. Just as Sean was about to open the door and shout for Leo and Claire, the chanting stopped, replaced by the buzzing sound of radio static.

The sound hurt his ears, but it was more bearable at least than the horrid chanting. Still it made him uncomfortable, and he tried to turn the radio off.

The buzzing static gradually faded, replaced by the sound of actual music this time. Except that it sounded like something from an 80s TV show, or something you'd hear on an oldies station.

'_Hiya folks, and welcome to another round of 'Three Choices'! Today's contestant is one Myra Hindley. As usual she'll be given a simple question, for which there will be three optional answers. If she chooses the right one, she wins a fabulous prize!_'

Sean raised an eyebrow. What was this? The voice was that of a man from one of those radio commercials he felt that he'd heard too many times before, but he wasn't absolutely sure.

'_Before we begin, I'll give you a simple warm-up question. Will that be okay, Myra?_'

The voice that answered was the voice of a young woman. '_Alright_._'_ The voice sounded rather shaky and uncertain.

'_What is the name of the woman who was brutally murdered in South Ashfield early today? Is it, a) Donna Burke, b) Heather Morris or c) Cynthia Velasquez?_'

'_Cynthia…the answer is 'c'_,_' _the voice answered shakily.

'_Correct!_' the host exclaimed. '_Well it seems that you understand how this works. Now on to the real deal. Are you ready?_'

'_I…I guess_,' the woman replied.

'_In the outskirts of Silent Hill, a young teenager is waiting for his friends in the car. Someone is watching from the darkness outside. The question is, what is going to be the murder weapon for young Sean Depralvo's death?_'

Sean's eyes widened with horror.

"What the fuck…"

'_Is it a) a knife, b) a gun or c) an axe? Take your time, Myra and think it over carefully. While the first option would be a classic, the second option has its merits too. The third would be the crowd favorite, but is that what the killer has in mind?_'

The sound of a ticking clock started playing, indicating the time Myra was allowed to make her decision. For Sean, every tick felt like an eternity, as he suddenly felt like the whole world around him was spinning. The sweat trickling down his face seemed to freeze in place, turned to ice by the cold that was overwhelming him now.

When the clock ticking ended, it was time for Myra to answer.

'_I know! It's-_

And the radio went dead.

"_What the fuck is going on!_"

Feeling his heart pound against his chest, Sean reached for the door, then hesitated.

'_Someone is watching from the darkness outside._'

Then the lights died, along with the engine, leaving Sean in total darkness.

He screamed.

-

"Did you hear something?"

Claire shook her head, but Leo stopped anyway, his eyes narrowing. "I'm pretty sure I heard Sean's voice," Leo said.

Claire shrugged and said, "He's in the car, remember? I'm sure you're imagining things. Come on, Keith needs us." Tugging at his sleeve, she took the flashlight from him and led the way ahead.

At first Leo didn't follow immediately. He didn't mind being in the dark- if he could just run back to the car and check…

"Hurry up!" Claire snapped.

Pushing the though away, Leo ran after Claire, deciding that he probably was imagining things, and Sean would be waiting for them in the car when they returned, asleep and stuffed full of doughnuts.


	5. Chapter Four

**Chapter Four**

The store was empty. The racks and shelves were devoid of any food, and the freezer at the back where the drinks were supposed to be was covered with rust, one of its doors hanging open to reveal that it was empty. The floor and walls were covered with dirtied, old newspapers, like for a renovation. Grumbling with disappointment, Keith sighed deeply before turning around and leaving. He walked back onto the road and continued following the blood trail, fighting back at his hunger.

With every step he took, the more and more he was convinced that all this was a dream. The town was too dark to be real. Kyle couldn't possibly be here. And this trail of blood, the emptiness of the whole place, it was just…

A nightmare.

"So how do I wake up, then?" he wondered. Why did everything he touch _feel_ real? He wondered if Claire, Sean and Leo were seeing the same town as he was. He wondered if they were even _here_.

"Maybe I'm dead," he mused to himself. "Maybe this is hell."

That was when he heard the sound of laughter at the back of his head. '_It's not exactly hell, Keith. But it's not any closer to heaven either. You're not dead yet, which gives me time to play around with you and your friends a bit before we're all done and can call it a day_.'

The blood trail led him towards the other edge of town, furthest from the graveyard route he had taken to get in. It was equally as silent and dark as the rest of the town- in that sense nothing had changed. If anything though, the buildings looked a lot older, with paint that had begun to crack and peel, walls smeared with blood and the dead cars parked at the sidewalks all looked older. In every sense, it felt as though he had traveled back in time.

The trail ended at a dingy looking motel, its signboard rusted and almost falling off its post. Whatever its name had probably been, it was now impossible to read, as it had been covered with a streak of blood. Underneath the original name that motel's new name: _Dead End_.

Keith looked around cautiously, fearing _its _return. As he approached the door, he noticed that there was an old, rusted metal pipe stuck into the wood as though it had been lodged there by some powerful force. Unsurprisingly, it was also smeared in blood at one end, suggesting that it had been used as a weapon before. Grasping the pipe and yanking it loose, Keith decided that it would have to do. Whatever was waiting for him inside, he would rather face it with a weapon in hand, even if it wasn't a gun or a knife.

Taking a deep breath, Keith opened the door cautiously, pointing the flashlight into the pitch blackness that was the motel's front lobby. The floor was wet, with water dripping from the cracked ceiling above. Shattered glass also littered the floor, as Keith discovered when he took his first step in, greeted by a crunching sound beneath his boots. The wooden counter was empty save for a small bell and a denim jacket, neatly wrapped lying there, as though waiting for him.

'_Wait a minute…_'

As Keith shone the flashlight towards the jacket, he realized with horror, that it belonged to Claire. The light also revealed patches of blood staining the jacket.

And Keith found the strength he had been forcing onto himself ever since this nightmare had begun starting to waver. His eyes widened with panic, and his left hand on his cheek, he approached the counter, tightening his grip on the pipe.

'_Goddamnitnonono…!_'

And the only thing that prevented him from screaming, was a note written in blood on the counter, saying:

'_She left it in the car. You can return it to her if you win the game of hide and seek. Don't forget to close your eyes and count to a twenty!_'

"Kyle, I know you're here somewhere," Keith breathed, seething with anger. "I

know you can hear me. I don't know what the _fuck_ you're trying to pull or what's happening to me, but for god's sakes leave my friends alone!" he shouted.

His voice echoed up the empty stairwell.

And as the echo died, Keith heard another sound-

Footsteps, coming from the upper floor.

Too overwhelmed by anger to even worry about his own safety, or whatever could be waiting for him upstairs (_If it were Kyle, he already knew what he was going to do. The way his grip on the pipe shuddered told everything_), Keith ran up the stairs, which was also littered with broken glass. Just as he was about to reach the top of the stairs, he saw the one open door in the hallway waiting for him to enter, with an arrow drawn in blood pointing towards it on the wall with the words: _Road Home_ written clearly.

In the darkness, as he shone his flashlight into the room, the first thing he saw was a pair of eyes.

-

_The fountain outside school was where they usually waited for each other before walking home together. Keith remembered the first time he had been taken there- it was right after English class on his first day at school and Leo, the boy he sat right next to was now leading him on with a friendly smile on his face._

_A pretty girl with long black hair tied into a ponytail behind her head was chewing gum, lying on her back beside the fountain while another student, a boy with long, curly dark brown hair munched on a doughnut- holding it in one hand while holding a book in the other. _

_"Guys, this is Keith. He just moved in here. He's the guy who moved in with Mr. Anderson across the street," Leo said, introducing Keith to them._

_The two looked at Keith for a while, studying him for what felt like forever until the girl's lips curled into a warm smile as she said, "Hi, I'm Claire."_

_The boy looked a little less friendly, but he introduced himself anyway, "Sean," he said simply, and before Keith could say anything, Sean prodded with his first question. "So you Mr. Anderson's long lost stepson or something?"_

_Keith shook his head. It was a joke, of course, but he wasn't in the mood to laugh, or to show any signs of amusement. With Mother's death still fresh in his mind, the numbness still needed time to wear off._

_But he didn't want to be alone._

_"I'm his nephew," Keith replied simply. _

_"Where're you from?" Claire asked. "I mean, apart from across the street. I mean where were you before you came here?"_

_Keith shrugged. "Silent Hill, if you've heard of the place."_

_Sean was the only one who showed any sign of recognition. "Of course," he said. "Edward Gein and Scott Fairbanks, two of the most notorious active serial killers over the past decade were from Silent Hill."_

_Keith raised an eyebrow, not sure if he should be offended or just surprised at how much Sean knew about Silent Hill. _

_"Ignore him," Leo laughed. "He's a know-it-all. Claire and I know nothing about no serial killers, and you're normal enough, right?"_

_Keith smiled. "I guess," he answered simply. _

_"So," Claire said, sitting up. "Since you're new here, we'd better show you the joints where we hang out. This is a city, and I'll bet it's a helluva lot bigger than your Silent Hill. Stay close, wouldn't want to get lost now, would you?"_

-

"You know what's worse than being in the dark?" Claire mused as Leo closed the iron gate behind him.

"Being in a _graveyard _in the dark."

Leo smiled, sighing as he gave Claire an exasperated look. "Oh come on, it's not like the dead are gonna jump out of their graves to eat our brains or anything. That's just the kind of stuff you get in horror movies." She grasped her hand, squeezing it as though to give her confidence. "We're real. This whole thing is _real_."

Claire smiled back. She opened her mouth, then let it hang before closing it again, changing her mind about telling Leo of what had happened in the bathroom. He wouldn't believe her if she told him anyway. Neither would Sean for that matter. But Keith…Keith would, if only because something told her now that what happened in the bathroom, it involved him somehow.

Then they heard the sound of laughter.

It sounded like Keith, and yet it wasn't. There was something _cold_ about it. Inhuman.

"Keith?" Leo called out, flashing his torchlight towards the sound of the laughter, only for the light to fall on a single, faded tombstone which read '_Angela Orosco_.' There were red handprints on the gray stone, which looked eerily like blood.

'_Or maybe it is blood,_' Claire whispered darkly to herself.

"_Claire?_"

It was his voice, calling out to her from the darkness.

"Keith, is that you?" Claire shouted out. "Where the hell are you? Are you lost? We're here to take you back to the motel!"

"_No. Claire, I found something. I found something. Come here._"

That was when Leo's cellphone rang.

"Sean?" Leo murmured, looking at the caller ID.

When he pressed the receive button, the voice that greeted him was indeed Sean's.

The only problem was that he was screaming.

"Oh God, I think Sean's in trouble," Leo said, looking at Claire. "We've got to get back to the car _now_."

And still Keith's voice kept calling Claire's name.

"Keith, we don't have fucking time for this right now!" Leo shouted angrily. "You can show us what you want _later_. Sean's in trouble!"

If Keith had heard Leo's outburst, he didn't show any sign of it. He kept on calling Claire's name, his voice now sounding sad. Lost. Afraid.

There had been a number of incidents throughout high school when Leo and Claire had heard Keith's voice the way it was now- and all those incidents had involved knives. Some had involved blood.

Leo handed the flashlight over to Claire.

"Find Keith," he said firmly. "I'm going to check on Sean."

"But won't you need it?" Claire protested.

Leo was already doubling back towards the iron gate. "I'm not afraid of the dark," Claire. "You're going to need it more than I will. Find Keith, and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

And at that he ran off, disappearing into the darkness.

-

_"Keith, Daddy needs the knife. Hand it over now."_

"Hello, Keith."

It was the same deep voice that had only returned to him in his dreams. A lot of time had passed since then. Five years ago. Keith hadn't been able to tell whether he was the one avoiding him, or whether it was the other way round. Either way, here he was now, sitting on a chair comfortable in the motel room, his gaze meeting his in the firm, commanding look that he used to receive as a child. Apart from the fact that his hair was now flecked with gray, he didn't look much different. Wearing a dirtied black cloak made it seem like his body was shrouded in shadows, like his head was the only thing there was in the room.

"Hello, Father."

Keith relaxed his grip on the pipe. His father, Alec Rainell wasn't Kyle. His father wasn't the monster. If anything, he was probably trapped in this nightmare like he was.

"So you've finally come," Alec said simply. "I was beginning to think that you've forgotten me."

"No, I haven't forgotten," Keith sighed. "I probably wanted to, but I haven't."

"It doesn't matter anyhow," Alec replied, his eyes staring deep into Keith's. A warm smile crept upon the old man's face as he said, "The town would have brought you back sooner or later. Your fate has been sealed since the moment you were born."

"I don't follow," Keith said. "What's fate got to do with anything? Father, Kyle brought us here, and we've got to find a way to beat him!"

Silence.

"It's too late for me, son," Alec sighed finally. "I'm only here to make sure you follow the right path. Like I said, your fate is sealed. The town wants you. The town needs you. And your friends-

-What about them?"

"You just might be able to save them and yourself," Alec said. "They were here not too long ago. They left looking for you. One of them hasn't gone far. Why, he's just across the street at the diner."

Keith found himself smiling.Diner? It had to be Sean. Sean was alive.

But if he was there, here, the town in general, it meant that Kyle had drawn him in too as he had promised. Keith's friends were going to play Kyle's game.

When Kyle had made that promise, Keith had made his own- that history would not repeat itself. Kyle was not going to claim any one of his friends, nor his father for that matter.

"Wait here," Keith said to his father. "I'll go get him. We'll figure a way out of this together."


	6. Chapter Five

**Chapter Five**

'_Count on Sean to think with his stomach,_' Keith thought to himself as he made his way across the street, his makeshift weapon in hand. If Sean had gone there in search of food, he would probably be disappointed. The point was that he was alive; they all were, according to Keith's father. They were looking for him right now, and if anything, he was now responsible for getting them in this mess. Somehow, if they could find each other, they would be able to get out alive together, Kyle be fucked.

It was beginning to rain. The sound of raindrops on the sidewalk was soothing, compared to the echoing howls and roars of the unknown coming from the darkness. Come to think of it, other than the sound of the rain, there wasn't anything else. Everything else had fallen silent.

He wondered if it were a good sign. The rain brought back memories of walking home from school in the rain together the rest of his friends a few years back. Everything had been so calm then, so simple, so clean.

But the rain also brought back memories of a time even further back, back when he had only been five. He and Kyle used to love it when it rained. Regardless of how much they would get scolded by their parents later, getting soaked outside, laughing and chasing each other at their games had been his world before things had started to go wrong.

The door to the diner was left open- sign enough that someone was in there. Shining the flashlight into the darkness of the diner, he stepped in, expecting Sean to see him coming and call his name.

Silence.

The diner was empty.

Most of the tables had been overturned, with broken plates and cups littering the floor.

On the window, there was a message for him, written again in blood.

_'his brilliant mind was the only good thing he had, the gluttonous pig. _

_ with that gone what left remains?'_

Keith felt a sudden chill run up the back of his spine when he realized that _something _was standing behind him, watching him. He could hear its excited breath, ragged and beastlike. Clutching the pipe, he turned around slowly-

"_Sean?_"

Keith stepped back, his eyes widening with surprise. The way Sean was looking at him now, the hungry, insane look in his bloodshot eyes coupled with the bloodstained kitchen knife made the room feel all the more cold, intensifying Keith's urge to just turn around and run.

Drool and blood flowed down his chin, onto his bare chest. There were cuts and bruises all over his body, like he had been tortured into the current state he was in. Or maybe it had been something he had seen?

"God, Sean, who the fuck did this to you?" Keith asked.

"_The red king wants his ruby slippers back_," Sean replied, almost giggling.

Keith's eyes narrowed. "Sean, what are you talking about?"

"_Hahahaheeheeheehaahaahee, is it that difficult to spot? Maybe it's because he gouged your eyes out with a teaspoon? Delicious that was- he fed it to me._"

Sean was advancing on him now.

"_Oliver Twist says he wants some more_."

And before Keith could react, Sean had pounced on him, knocking him flat onto the floor. They fell with the sound of cracking glass, and Keith felt something tear through the back of his jacket, scraping his back. He had other more pressing concerns though, like the knife Sean was now trying to shove into his face.

"Sean don't fucking do this!"

-

"_Not like that."_

_With an annoyed sigh, Sean took the pencil from Keith along with his workbook and continued where Keith had left the formula hanging. "You've been slacking too much, man. Practice and revise more often. It's the only way to save your grades. Mr. Gordon doesn't take bribes."_

_Keith laughed softly. Then he sighed and took his pencil back from Sean. The library was almost abandoned, save for the table next to them where a few girls were whispering excitedly about the upcoming prom. _

_"Where the hell are Leo and Claire?" Keith asked. "Weren't they supposed to meet us here?"_

_"Probably caught up in other stuff," Sean replied simply, not taking his eyes off the chemistry textbook he was holding._

_They continued sitting together in silence for a while, until Sean suddenly turned towards Keith and said, "What you did yesterday, don't ever do it again."_

_Keith's eyes widened, surprised by the sudden firmness and concern in Sean's eyes. Sean hadn't been there yesterday. It had only been Leo. Seeing that Sean knew about it now too, Claire would undoubtedly come after him later as well. _

_"You scared the crap out of Leo," Sean continued. "And that bastard almost never admits that. What made you even think about doing it, anyway?"_

_Keith looked down at the table._

_"Mother," he said simply. "I've been dreaming of her ever since I moved here. She says I don't deserve to live."_

_Sean's eyes narrowed. "Guilt," he said. "It's not your fault. It was that bloody serial killer, wasn't it?"_

_Keith took a deep breath. That was what everyone understood so far- that an insane serial murderer had broken into his house to kill his mother after stalking her for months. But it wasn't until last night that he'd told the other part of the story to Leo, and now he was going to tell Sean too._

_"The killer was my brother, Kyle. And yes, it was my fault. I was supposed to stop him."_

_Silence. _

_Sean stared at him with a surprised look on his face. _

_"Can we just forget the whole thing?" Keith asked. "I'd rather not think about it right now."_

_"One mind can only control one body," Sean said, looking straight into his eyes. "I don't know how close you were with your brother, but if you failed to stop him, it was probably because he didn't want you to stop him. In which case you can hardly be held responsible for what happened."_

_Then he turned back towards his book. Where Leo had, with a concerned look, bombarded him with questions and words of comfort the night before, Sean had left him with only that. _

_Somehow, it was enough._

_"Thanks_."

-

As he managed to push Sean off, he got on his feet, his eyes searching frantically for the pipe he had dropped. By the time he spotted it, it was too late to reach for it as Sean was charging towards him again, roaring like a wild animal. He slammed against Keith, knocking him back, back, back-

And the next thing Keith knew, they were falling out through the window, millions of pieces of shattered glass falling around them in slow motion.

The moment they hit the ground, Keith rolled over to get on top of Sean, trying to wrench the knife from his grip.

"_Mine! Mine! MINE! You PROMISED!_" Sean growled.

And Sean's left fist found its way into Keith's face, knocking Keith back as Sean hastily scrambled to his feet.

"Sean _please_!" Keith shouted.

And Sean stopped.

They stared at each other for a while, and Keith saw recognition in his eyes.

"_Red,_" Sean said. Then he started laughing, dancing, twirling around in the rain repeating, "_RedredredredredredredRED!_"

Then Sean stopped and pointed at him with the knife. "_Losssst?"_ he asked. "_The murderer was lossst too, until that bitch came in and spoiled everything. His Majesty had a grand time poking himmm, making him bleed. Then he gave up and went swimming. The water's not red but it was good enough."_

And he started laughing.

"_Speaking of His Majesty."_

Pain. The moment he felt it surge through his entire body, he saw the bloodied end of the sharp piece of metal protruding from his left shoulder, and he knew that _it_ was behind him. And he was fucked.

When the weapon, the spear was withdrawn, Keith fell to his feet, looking over his shoulder to see it towering above him.

He hadn't noticed how _human_ it was the first time around. It probably was a human. Kyle, perhaps? Maybe it _used_ to be a human in a life before. It was a man: that much Keith could tell. This being dressed in white clothes with black and blood red stains, with its face masked by a large, rusted metal pyramid was a _'he_'.

"_He wants you to sit still_," Sean laughed, advancing on Keith, the knife raised.

It, _he_, watched on, backing off without uttering a word as though giving its permission to Sean.

For a moment, Keith had a feeling that _he_, Pyramid Head as he called it in his mind, was probably Kyle- or something Kyle had conjured up in this twisted hell reality. Then, as Sean reached him, he decided that he didn't fucking _care_ who or what it was. All he cared was for living. He wasn't about to fucking die here.

With a sudden burst of strength, he caught Sean's hands before the knife fell upon him, rising up for another struggle. Shouting, he pushed Sean back against a nearby lamppost before giving one hard _pull._

And the knife was in his hands.

-

_"I love this song!_" _Sean shouted over the music. _

_"Then let's all fucking dance then!" Claire shouted back with a smile on her face._

_It was his third night since he had met them, and they were now at the local hangout place, a club of sorts where rock bands performed, loud music was played and food and tables were a plenty. _

_"I can't," Keith replied, suddenly blushing. _

_Before he knew it though, Leo had grabbed his left hand and Sean had grabbed the other._

_"Dude," Sean laughed. "You hang out with us; you're going to **learn** to dance, even if it kills you._ _Don't worry, I'll show you the moves."_

_Leo was now laughing too. "Right, learn from him if you want to learn how to look like an awkward, robotic Energizer bunny."_

_-_

The knife was now in Sean's chest.

"_Ohmygod._"

Sean coughed blood, his eyes looking down at the knife in his chest with horror, which then turned to insane glee.

"Sean, no, no, no," Keith whispered. _He_ had put the knife there. In that one moment of panic, it felt like it would be either Sean or him. In that one moment, he had murdered his friend.

"_So you **do**_ _know how to dance_," Sean whispered hoarsely. The light drizzle was turning harder now, and it mingled with the blood staining his half-naked body. As Keith backed off, withdrawing the knife, Sean fell to his knees and outstretched his hands, looking up at the dark sky.

And then he fell lifelessly onto the pavement, never to stand up again.

"_OhmygodfucknonononoIfuckingkilledSeankilledSeankilledSeankilledSean!"_

Eyes wide with horror, he backed off further, the bloodstained knife still in his hands.

Then, remembering Pyramid Head, he turned around, knife raised-

But _he_ wasn't there anymore.

Keith fell to his knees, tears welling up in his eyes.

"_Oh, you found Sean! Good for you, Keith! Now all you need to do is find Claire and Leo, and then it'll be someone else's turn to seek and **you** can hide!"_

-

_They were laughing as they left the club together. _

_"You're okay, kid," Sean told him with a wide grin on his face. "You're okay. I didn't like you much before but I think after seeing the way you made yourself look like an idiot on the dance floor just now, this is going to be the start of a beautiful friendship._"


	7. Chapter Six

**Chapter Six**

He kept his hand in the sink for longer than he cared to remember, scrubbing, scrubbing, scrubbing, panting hard in the darkness. Even when the blood was long gone, he kept on scrubbing. Behind him, lying on the floor was the knife he had used to murder Sean- also washed clean. It still felt dirty to the touch.

The diner's kitchen was as messed up and torn apart as the front area, except that as an added bonus, there was a rotting corpse lying propped up against the back door, with multiple stab wounds on the entire body. It was a man, possibly the original owner of the diner, or possibly just about anyone Sean could have encountered while in the state Keith had found him in.

"What the hell is going on?" Keith whispered to himself. He had lost count of how many times that question had crossed his mind; starting from the moment he had spotted his twin brother back at the graveyard up until now. That question had yet to be answered.

'_I did it in self-defense. If I didn't do it, he would've killed me._'

He looked up at his face in the mirror. It didn't look any different that it did earlier this morning when he had washed his face in the public washroom just outside Silent Hill.

'_I can't see it on my face, but I'm a murderer. It doesn't matter why I did it, he was my fucking **friend**! I'm no better off than Kyle.'_

But it could be so much worse.

He realized that. Right now, Leo and Claire were still looking for him, and he could only fucking pray, hope that they were alright. That they wouldn't be as fucked as Sean was.

If anything though, not counting Keith or Kyle, the town had its share of monsters, and right now what came first now was finding them, before anything else happened to them.

'_Assuming they haven't been killed yet._'

"No, they're stronger than that," he told himself as he turned off the tap. He picked up the steel pipe and the flashlight he had left by the sink, and turned around to leave-

He stopped, giving one last glance over his shoulder to look at his reflection.

'_Murderer._'

Screaming, he slammed the pipe into his own reflection, shattering the mirror into a million pieces.

Outside, it stopped raining.

-

The small secluded wooden cabin at the edge of the lake didn't look very inviting at all. Regardless of Keith's voice whispering in her ear to go inside, her every other instinct told her not to. She could not explain one bit of what was going on- from the incident in the bathtub, to Keith's voice coming from an invisible body now, to the weird fucks she'd seen on her way here- things too grotesque and bloody to describe. Even the word 'monsters' would have been inaccurate. She was tired now, tired and scared. Without Leo, without any weapon to defend herself, all she could do so far was run.

With the only light in the room streaming in from the open door, she hesitated just as she was about to close it- realizing that closing it would leave her in total darkness save for the light from her torchlight. But leaving it open would allow the _things_ outside to see her, and come in easily.

And maybe it was her imagination, but the light from her torchlight seemed to be growing _dimmer_.

'_What am I even doing here?_' she wondered. There was still no sign of Keith, or whoever it was who had led her here. As she flashed the light around the room, she saw no one- just a dust-covered living room.

And a trail of dried blood leading to the fireplace.

And that was when the door behind her slammed shut.

Gasping with surprise, her hands failed her and her one source of light, the origin of what little sense of security that this fucked up situation offered, clattered to the floor.

It fell in the general direction towards the fireplace, where she saw something that made her heart almost stop.

_A pair of feet, hanging from inside the fireplace._

"Finally, we can get down to business."

It was Keith's voice. And yet, it wasn't. She felt certain about it now. Whoever it was, _whatever _it was, it was most _definitely_ not Keith.

The feet disappeared up the fireplace, followed by the sound of an almost childlike sort of laughter- except that it was cold, heartless.

"Who the fuck are you?" Claire asked loudly.

And just as she asked that, she heard the sound of footsteps coming towards the living room from the darkness. Slowly, she bent down to pick up the flashlight so she could have a look at the person-

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

It was still using Keith's voice. This time, the tone he carried was threatening and serious- serious enough for Claire to back off from the flashlight, leaving it on the floor.

"I think it's time we got acquainted, no?" he said pleasantly. "I'm-

-Kyle," Claire interrupted firmly. "You're Kyle, Keith's twin brother. The murderer."

It was guesswork as far as she was concerned. But what other explanation could there be for a person who looked exactly like Keith, but with a different personality? As she said it out loud, it triggered the realization that she was trapped inside a dark cabin in the middle of nowhere with a _murderer_.

Silence.

In the darkness, she could only see his face vaguely, but now she could see enough to know that he was smiling, baring his pearly white teeth as he started giggling like a madman.

"You got my name right," he admitted. "And you called the twin brother part right, though it's not entirely accurate. But what you got _completely_ wrong however, is the identity of the murderer."

Her eyes narrowed. What was this person playing at?

"So you're saying it was Keith? Keith murdered his mother?" she asked.

"Maybe," the voice replied, snickering. "Wouldn't _you_ like to know? Maybe you've been in love with a _murderer_ all these years…cool, huh?"

Claire's eyes widened. "But-

-Leo's your boyfriend," the voice finished for her. "Don't bother using that for your defense. We both know the truth.

'_That's not the point!_' she thought to herself.

"Keith is not a murderer," she said firmly.

"I didn't saaaaay thaaaaat…" The reply came in a singsong voice. "The only thing I said was that _I _wasn't the murderer. But I'll tell you something about the murderer, though-

"_He's on his way here_."

Deciding that she'd had enough, Claire whirled around, the fear inside her starting to take hold. She opened the door and ran through-

Only to get back into the same room.

Kyle was laughing hysterically now.

"You can't leave yet," he said. "We're not done _talking_ yet."

"Fuck you!" Claire spat back, but the words were a lot braver than she felt. Inside, her mind was already whispering repeatedly-

'_Youregoingtodieyouregoingtodieyouregoingtodiefuckedfuckedfucked-_

"Now, Claire," Kyle said as he stopped laughing. "I need your full and undivided attention. I'm going to tell you what to do, and you're going to obey…"

-

There was no sign of Sean anywhere. All four car doors were left open, the engine was dead, the windows were smashed and the tires were gone. It looked like an entire mob had attacked the car-

And they weren't just angry at the car.

A clear trail of blood led all the way from the car itself, down the road to where it disappeared into the fog.

Sean was dead- and whoever it was that had killed him, he, _they_ had dragged him off somewhere.

As his mind returned to Claire, he turned around and ran back down the stairs as fast as his feet could carry him.

_Something _was out here. And he needed to get to Claire before-

-

Now his father was missing as well. At the chair where he had been seating, Keith had found a note pinned to the armrest saying:

' _Dad's hiding too! But we'll find him- we always do! That old man hasn't changed one bit!_'

And he was lost. As he stared at the empty chair, wondering what to do next, his mind wandered back to when he was a child-

"_Daddy's busy today. He'll be coming home late._" Mother used to say that all the time, and when she did…the look on her face-

No, he didn't even remember her face now. It had been so long…

But he knew where to go now, or at least, he had an _idea_ of where to go. If he was wrong-

He'd keep on looking. As he turned around to leave the room, he decided that he'd keep on looking, tearing apart the goddamn town if he had to- if it meant saving Claire, Leo and his father.


	8. Chapter Seven

**Chapter Seven**

'_Daddy doesn't love Mommy._'

_Peering through bedroom keyhole, Kyle's lips curled into a frown as he backed off and allowed Keith to take a look. True enough, the two were shouting at each other again. Daddy always looked so angry whenever he came back from work, and they had seen him hit Mommy so often now. Tonight however, Mommy was fighting back._

_For all the good it would have done her, it would have been better if she had just shut up._

_'But why?' Keith asked. 'Did Mommy do something bad?'_

_Kyle nodded slightly. 'Why else would he be mad? Daddy's always mad for good reasons.'_

_Keith didn't believe that. They were four, then. As much as Kyle seemed to be Daddy's favorite, Keith was closest to his mother. He didn't remember much about her now, except the fact that she had such sad eyes…_

_The last time he had seen them, they had been dead eyes, staring lifelessly at the ceiling with blood gushing out of her throat. _

_And Kyle had been the one with the knife._

_On the same night, he had taken his own life. He died at the age of 14. _

-

'_But he didn't truly die then._'

Walking down the darkened streets alone, Keith started quickening his pace when he heard guttural, growling sound approaching him from the shadows behind him, drawing closer and closer. He could _feel_ them eyeing him with hungry eyes, though it wasn't so much hunger as it was hatred. Pure and simple, they wanted him _dead_.

'_Kyle has been alive all this while, here in Silent Hill. Home._'

He broke into a run.

And _they_ gave chase.

'_He's been waiting for me. He wants me dead._'

Were these things conjured up by Kyle too? As he turned at the first corner down the street into a back alley, he caught a glimpse of them, but kept on running before he could actually _see_ them for what they were. Words could not accurately describe what they were- faceless demons cloaked in fog, taking on the shapes of humans, dogs, trees, insects, whatever form the shadows allowed them to take. Were they living things? Were they even _real_?

His answer came when the first one caught up with him.

He felt a sharp jolt of pain run up his left leg, and he realized that whatever the fucker was, it had _bitten_ him, with rows of sharp teeth, not enough to cut clean through, but enough to draw blood.

They were playing with him. They wanted him to scream. They wanted him to bleed. They wanted him to hurt.

And when they were done with all that, they wanted him to die.

He was not going to give them that satisfaction. Fighting the pain, he ran faster, his grip on the iron pipe tightening- ready to use it as a weapon if ever he needed to.

-

Claire could see buildings in the distance- that meant the town was close by. That meant that she could get help- that fucker wouldn't dare do anything in public. Her shoulder was bleeding badly, and she the loss of blood was beginning to take its toll on her.

Behind her, the murderer followed her silently, _walking_, taking his time. He knew full well that she wouldn't be able to escape anyway. This town was on his side.

And it was her enemy now.

The seemingly normal town Claire had driven into earlier this morning was no longer there as the uphill road led her back to a dead town, silent, dark and devoid of life. There were no moving cars, no people, no birds, cats or dogs even. There was only her, the shadows-

And the killer.

She desperately ran towards the first building, but found that the door was sealed shut with plywood boards. The neighboring one was held tightly shut. The other one was locked. And so was the next, and the next, and the next…

And just as she was about to give up, the last door at the end of the street turned out to be the one she was looking for. She let herself in and slammed the door shut behind her, leaving her in total darkness. She leaned against the door, crying, panting with exhaustion.

Silence.

Sobbing now, she sat down on the floor, unable to see anything around her. She still kept her back pressed against the door, half-expecting the killer to find her at any given second.

Minutes passed by and still nothing happened.

Then her phone started ringing.

She almost jumped with surprise. Quickly drawing it from her pocket, she held it in front of her, the white light from the screen lighting her face. The number wasn't from her phone book, but she froze when she realized almost instantly, that she _knew_ who it belonged to.

'_No._'

Slowly, almost fearfully, she brought the phone to her ears before answering.

"H..hello?" she croaked.

'_Hello, baby. Miss me?_'

And, upon recognizing the voice, she screamed and tossed the phone halfway across the room.

"_You're dead! You're fucking dead!_" she shrieked.

And that was when the lights in the room went on.

There were clocks on the wall. Hundreds of them, possibly more, in all shapes and sizes. They covered all the walls surrounding her, staring at her like a hundred evil grinning faces.

They struck three at the same time.

Claire's screams were drowned out by the noise the clocks were making.

Meanwhile, across the street, the killer grinned in the darkness.

-

Claire wasn't answering her phone. Groaning with frustration, Leo pocketed his handphone before he started pacing back and forth in the darkness, wondering what to do next. He was back at the graveyard, and there was no sign of Claire or Keith. Without the flashlight, he felt…uncomfortable. No, he wasn't about to admit to being afraid. He wasn't afraid of the dark, but it wouldn't hurt just to have at least _some_ light.

He cursed himself for deciding to split up with Claire. He cursed himself even more for leaving Sean alone in the car. He felt like screaming inside, but there was no time for grief. Not now. Not when the lives of his two other friends were in danger. Saving them came first.

'_If they're still alive_.'

He pushed the thought to the back of his mind.

"Looking for someone?"

Leo almost shouted with surprise as he whirled around, backing off from the voice of the woman behind him.

It was a girl, a teenager from the looks of it. She had short black hair with dark brown eyes. She wore a white sweater, which made her stand out so much in the darkness that Leo had to wonder how she got here.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she gasped. "I didn't mean to scare you."

Leo managed a smile. "I wasn't scared," he said. "What's a girl like you doing out here at a time like this, anyway?"

The girl looked down for a while. When it became obvious that she wasn't going to answer the question, Leo smiled apologetically. She had probably just lost someone dear to her. There was a kind of sadness in her eyes…Leo was sure he'd seen it somewhere before. Her eyes reminded him of Claire's. Right before…

"Forget it. You don't have to answer that question. But yeah, I'm looking for someone. Two people, actually. A guy and a girl-

"Everyone comes here looking for someone," the girl interrupted. "In the end, no one leaves." A grave look appeared in her eyes when she added, "Listen, there's something…wrong with this town. You should probably turn around and leave."

Leo's eyes narrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?" he asked. "The town was normal enough just now. I even booked a room at the hotel."

The girl's eyes widened with surprise. "But…" Then, a look of understanding appeared on her face. With it, came the look of grave concern. "Look, it won't…it won't be like…that when you go back there. It'll be…changed."

"Changed?"

She looked down guiltily, falling silent yet again.

Feeling annoyed now, Leo sighed and asked, "Have you seen anyone else pass through here?"

Hesitantly, the girl nodded. She pointed off into the darkness, where another path seemed to lead into the woods. "There," she said. "She went that way. But…I wouldn't go after her if I were you. She's…"

But Leo was already running off. Not even a thank you.

The girl sighed sadly. Turning around, she sat down, leaning back against a tombstone.

"Like me."

Behind her, the name on the tombstone read: 'ANGELA OROSCO.'

-


	9. Chapter Eight

**Chapter Eight**

One.

Two.

Three.

Seconds, minutes passed as he crouched down alone in the darkness, his eyes never leaving the double doors he had used to get into the building. He needed to make sure that _they_ weren't after him anymore. And until now he had kept the flashlight off to avoid giving his position away to the ones outside, still searching. Had they seen him enter the hospital? If they had, why hadn't they come in after him?

In the silence, he could still hear his heart thumping against his chest, the sound of his own breath which he was struggling to regain now.

Deciding finally that they hadn't seen him come in, or at least weren't coming in after him just yet, Keith rose to his feet and walked past the reception area before turning his flashlight on, where it wouldn't pass the glass doors to the things lurking outside.

'_Oh crap._'

The first thing the light fell on was a stretcher lying on the floor, and on it was a thing draped in a bloodstained sheet that conveniently resembled that of a dead body. If the shape wasn't convincing enough, the smell that accompanied it gave everything away.

And as Keith shone his flashlight away from the dead body, the next sight wasn't any more comforting.

A message, written in blood on the wall:

'_He deserved to die, and so did she. We all, in the end, deserve death. Even you.'_

Keith had no time for all this. Apart from hiding from the monsters, he had come here to find his father. The clue left for him in the hotel room was supposed to lead here, or so he expected. Kyle had said that 'daddy hasn't changed one bit', and in that sense, Keith guessed that Kyle meant his father's workaholic tendencies. He tended to come home late a lot, working at the hospital.

He hadn't exactly visited his father while he was working before, but Keith remembered clearly the place his father used to talk about the most.

The morgue.

He hadn't exactly thought about how much that scared him until now. The dead body lying in front of him now wasn't the first he'd seen, and it was most definitely not going to be the last, judging by his luck so far. In fact, if the rest of the bodies he'd see today would be draped in sheets like this one, _that_ could be considered lucky.

-

While Keith was taking the stairs heading downwards, Claire was in a room two floors above him.

Strapped to a bed, with the killer going through a set of rusted surgical equipment beside her, she would have screamed out if she hadn't realized hours ago that it brought no good. The town, whatever this place was, was now devoid of life. She didn't know if what she had seen this morning had been an illusion, of if this was just some kind of alternate dimension, but the fact in the end was that she was alone here with the killer. She didn't know if Leo, Sean and Keith were here too, but even if they were, she doubted that they would be in any position to help her.

Her eyes were red from crying, still wide with fear. Surprising thing was, she wasn't as scared of this man as she was of the voice she had heard on the phone.

When she found the strength, the courage to speak, the first question she asked was, "_He's_ not alive, is he?"

And the killer stopped, obviously surprised to hear her finally speak. He turned around to face her, a slight grin on his face. "Everyone, _everything_ is alive here, little girl. Or, maybe I'm wrong, maybe everything's dead. In heaven, the two make little difference."

His answer made little sense. But still she wanted to know. "I fucking stabbed him," she said, sounding calmer than she felt. "More times than I fucking dared to count."

"Seven," the killer answered, turning back towards his tools. "If you'd stabbed him 59 times, it wouldn't have made a difference. As I said, in heaven, there's very little difference between life and death, which is why you'll soon forgive me for what I'm about to do."

"You're not going to get away with this," she spat. "Keith, Leo and Sean will be looking for me you sick fuck, and-

"They'll what, kill me? You know Leo and Sean wouldn't have the balls for that," the man replied simply, without turning to look at her. "But _Keith_ on the other hand…" he chuckled. "Keith is capable of many wonderful things."

Claire's eyes narrowed. "What are you getting at?"

"He's a killer, Claire. A murderer."

-

Leo bent down to pick up the flashlight.

It was the exact same one he had given Claire. And yet Claire was nowhere to be seen. The cabin was empty, but the bloodstains on the floor, the upturned furniture and now the flashlight were all proof enough that there had been people here recently, and at least one of them would have been Claire.

There was no body, however, and the bloodstains near the fireplace were mostly dried ones, so there was reason enough to believe that Claire was still alive. He could still save her.

'_I'd worry about myself if I were you._'

Leo's eyes widened with surprise. "Keith?"

No answer came. Only the slamming of the door behind him, trapping him inside the dark wooden cabin.

-

Keith found the light switch. Not that it made any difference. Maybe the power was out. But then maybe it wasn't such a bad thing after all. Giving up, he turned away from the wall and shone the flashlight ahead.

It didn't fall on a dead body.

It fell on a severed hand.

'_The hands of the guilty do not belong to them, they belong to God.'_

The words were written in, surprise, blood before the severed hand.

He paid no attention to it. He shone the light around the room, walking deeper inside. He was careful enough not to step on any of the bodies that lay sprawled on the floor, not that it would matter, logically. Dead bodies were dead bodies, Leo would say. Whenever they all hung out and watched horror movies, Leo would always remind them that. This was real life, where dead bodies would not come to life.

Yet, had Keith not seen a dead body this evening? This town _was_ a horror movie. Worse, it was hell. And after seeing Kyle, he knew full well that dead bodies _would_ come to life here.

They did not, however, much to his relief. They were, if anything, distractions from what he was really looking for.

"Dad?" he called out once.

No answer. He searched the room for a familiar face, whether it would belong to his father or any of his friends.

None.

Sighing, he turned around to leave-

And his flashlight shone on a figure standing in the doorway, pointing a finger straight at him.

He nearly jumped with surprise, nearly screamed. His grip on the pipe loosened when he saw that the figure pointing at him was not alive, and it wasn't a dead body either.

It was a mannequin, propped up on a stand, wearing a pink dress with blue flowers. It had no face, like most store mannequins, but someone had taken the trouble to draw a grin on its face.

"Fuck," Keith spat. He hated Kyle's sense of humor. And he knew exactly why the mannequin had a black wig and was dressed as it was.

It was what his mother had been wearing when she had died.

'_She's not pointing at you, idiot._'

Kyle's voice was a whisper in his ear, but it was enough for him to spin around quickly, his eyes widening with surprise.

The mannequin had been pointing over his shoulder. Behind him was the thing he had seen in the streets, where he had killed Sean. The thing with the metal pyramid covering its face.

Keith didn't know how it had gotten there in the first place, but noticing the giant knife it was carrying, he didn't bother to even think about it.

He pushed the mannequin aside on his way out, running as fast as his legs would carry him while it followed after, walking calmly.


	10. Chapter Nine

**Chapter Nine**

He would have dashed out the double doors without a second thought had it not been for the sound of inhuman growling coming from the outside, and the fact that he still hadn't found what he had come to find. There was a moment of uncertainty as he stood in front of the double doors, panting hard. He didn't know if _he_ was still coming after him, but he didn't want to linger around one place long enough to find out. He didn't want to leave the hospital- he was afraid of the things waiting for him outside, but at the same time he didn't want to stay, not when _he_ was still around.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!" he exclaimed with frustration. The words left for him in the hotel room were playing over and over again in his mind. His father _had_ to be here. Somewhere.

Of course, this was assuming that Kyle was being truthful in this whole game. But even if he was lying, what other lead was there to follow?

His father had to have a workstation outside the morgue, or maybe he was in one of the hospital wards. Somewhere on the upper floors perhaps. Thinking quickly, he made his way into the reception office, to hide from _him_, and at the same time to do something he should have been smart enough to do from the start. His father spent time in the morgue, but was that the only thing he did here? Inside, Keith cursed himself for not knowing these minor details. But then, he'd been trying his best to forget his father, his whole life ever since he had left this town.

'_Oh no._'

There was only one patient record in the metal drawers. Only one doctor was assigned to that patient.

The doctor was Kyle Rainell. The patient was Claire.

Not caring whether or not the thing was still outside looking for him, he dashed out of the office, running faster, if that was possible, than he had been running when it had been his own life he had feared for.

He ran up the stairs, literally cursing himself for feeling so tired now. He cursed the stairs, the wall, the whole fucking building, the entire fucked up town, and most of all, his insane brother.

Why, oh why had he _had_ to come home to Silent Hill?

The room he was looking for was on the 3rd floor. One of the smaller wards compared to the ones on the 2nd floor. He would have yanked the door off its hinges had he been strong enough when he finally found it. And yet he hesitated to step in for a second, afraid of what he might find.

"Keith?"

The voice that greeted him, out of breath but relieved nonetheless was not Claire's- it was his father's.

Huddled up in the corner, his face covered with scratch marks and wounds, he stood up when Keith stepped in. From the looks of things, the town hadn't been any kinder towards him than it had been towards Keith. Although he wasn't the one he had been hoping to find, Keith gave a sigh of relief.

But the look on Alec's face…

"She…I…He…I tried to stop him! I tried!"

Keith's eyes narrowed. "Claire? Who? Dad, you're not making any sense!"

Then he noticed that the floor was stained with blood.

And on the bed, a jar waited innocently with the label, '_To_ _Keith, with love_.'

Inside the jar, was a human heart.

Keith fell to his knees.

'_No_.'

Alex pulled him up, an angry look on his face. "There's no _time_ for this, Keith! Kyle is after you, and your other friend Leo. He will try to get to him next, if not me. And once your friends and I are out of the picture, he will kill _you_."

Keith wasn't listening. Tears were streaming freely down his cheeks as he suddenly regained his strength, as he grasped his father by the collar. "_Tell me it's not hers, dad. TELL ME IT'S NOT HERS."_

If anything, Keith's outburst only made his father angrier. "We have no _time_ for this!" he shouted back, pushing his son back. "This town, this town is hell, and your brother is a _part_ of it. He knows where everything is, he controls _everything_. You _have_ to get out of here, Keith, or you are going to _die._"

Without waiting for Keith to respond, he made his way for the door. "_Hurry up!_"

Keith gave one last glance at the innocent-looking jar lying on the bed.

"Where is he?" Keith asked through gritted teeth.

That was when Keith saw, on his father's face, something he should have seen since he entered the room.

His father was hiding something.

"Where is Kyle?" Keith asked, shouting at the top of his lungs.

The old man hesitated for a while, before finally admitting, "He's at the church. He asked me to tell you that Leo would be there too. That's why he kept me alive."

The look in Keith's eyes hardened, and his father could see that he had already decided what he was going to do next.

"You don't _have_ to go and save that last friend of yours," his father argued impatiently. "It's obviously a trap, and he's probably already dead for all we know. Let's just get out of this town!"

"No," Keith replied angrily. "If there's a chance that I can save Leo, I'm going. He would do the same for me. And there's no _way_ that I'm letting Kyle get away with what he's done."

"He's almost a God in this town, Keith!" his father pointed out. "And he's already dead! What can you _possibly_ do to him?"

"I'll kill him again," Keith said. "And I'll _keep_ killing him again and again as long as he keeps getting back up again."

He had walked ahead a few steps before he noticed that his father wasn't coming walking behind him. He stopped and turned around to find his father staring apologetically at him.

"I'm not ready to throw my life away so easily," he said. "Please, son, follow me. We'll leave this town together."

Keith shook his head. His decision was final.

His father sighed sadly. "Then I'll be leaving alone."

Keith didn't look back a second time.


End file.
